historical fiction, contemporary fiction
Right from the first chapter, I was hooked! A letter is misdelivered and lost for seven years which changes the lives of three women. The novel changes perspectives between Angela, the woman who finds the letter in her antique shop in 2017; Nancy, the intended recipient of the letter; and Evelyn, a woman who was forced into a home for unwed mothers in the 1960s and later became a doctor. It is told over the course of their lives spanning nearly 80 years. Their stories illustrate the pregnancy- and motherhood-related struggles of women in the 20th and 21st centuries and highlight the importance of reproductive choice.
While the setting of Looking for Jane was in Canada, the situations were similar to those that have been faced in the United States. Heather Marshall did a wonderful job crafting this novel with the multiple perspectives and timelines. I liked the way the characters’ stories intersected in smart and subtle ways. Eventually, certain surprises were predictable but the author’s choices about what to make obvious and what to keep under the radar were well done. And while Marshall definitely had an agenda in the points made during this novel, I agreed with them wholeheartedly. Even though I thought I fully understood the issues around women’s personal choice, I still learned a few things by being able to experience these characters’ situations in detail.
The audiobook narrator was Sarah Borges. At first, I didn’t think I’d like her since she had a very robotic tone at times and also often sounded like she had a piece of hard candy between her teeth and the inside of her cheek. But her voice acting and broad vocal repertoire eventually won me over. I will give her an A- since her positives strongly outweigh her negatives.
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